With a cut-and-paste musical aesthetic, The Books, a.k.a. Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong, didnʼt invent the audio collage, but they have perfectedthe idea of incorporating found sound into their music. Not interested in repeating snippets of sound or vocals as in hip hop, The Books use whole sections of speech, where natural pauses and repetitions create an atmosphere all their own.

As Zammuto explains, The Books record “little pieces and use the computer to organize those bits.” The result is kind of less-is-more future-folk, cliché-free and miraculously organic. Stylus magazine comments: “The sample-heavy music of The Books provides post-modernists ample thought for food, casual listeners something to giggle at, and those in between something to marvel over.”

The Books are just beginning to explore the balance between lyrics, found sounds, and traditional song structure. “Home studios have ushered in a new kind of folk music,” says Zammuto. “Not to bastardize that word more than it already is, but it allows pretty much anybody to create music within small circles, within the context of their friends or families, and within their own homes. It’s a new way of working that allows us to live really close to the ground financially, and circumvent thewhole pro-studio atmosphere and corporate aspect of music.”

The Books have always been an entity that defied category, or any definable aesthetic, which did little to box them into any critical holding pen. As XLR8R once put it: “It sounds like everything from Asiatic Appalachian folk to a soundtrack for a future where robots made of empty tomato cans, dam radios, and duct tape rule the world.”

“They’ve taken moments of contemplation– when one understands something on an emotional level but can’t quite articulate his thoughts– and dressed it up in a melodic frame. Immediately accessible despite absences of obvious reference points…(their) records felt like gifts, demanding little from the listener but paying out handsomely.” – Pitchfork

So if you fancy heading along just send an email with a. your full name b. your message board name c. The Books Tickets as the subject line to giveaways@thumped.com by midnight on Monday May 10th.